We have a Panera Bread café near work. They are busy during lunch every day. I went a little late so that I could find a quiet spot to eat and study, and I found a side of the dining room that was pretty empty.

I dropped off my tote bag, then ordered my food, filled my cup, and waited for my food to be ready. All was well. About 5 minutes after I picked up my food, a pair of women came in, then sat next to me. They both took out devotional books, and each got water, but nothing else. I was there for thirty minutes after they arrived and they never bought food or coffee (Panera has items for less than $1 on their menu). They left just after I did.

Is it SS to go into a restaurant, drink their water and use their tables to meet someone without spending anything?

It is highly SS, especially around where I live. Starbucks stores get used a lot as meeting spaces for groups and people buy coffee in order to use the table / wi-fi. I have seen it once where a person met another for a meeting and only got water. Their table mate got nothing. The baristas kept an eye on that table a lot because they thought the two were going to do something. Nope - just two men meeting for business who thought buying a cup of coffee was beneath them.

What was more SS to me about the whole experience is that one of the people had a reusable water bottle that she filled directly, without using another cup to transfer the water. That is against health code as well.

Is it SS to go into a restaurant, drink their water and use their tables to meet someone without spending anything?

As a former part-owner of a restaurant, I say "absolutely." The restaurant still has the expense of washing the glasses (or buying paper/plastic cups), cleaning the table if you spilled something, and probably, a water bill. Not much for two people, but it adds up, especially since I'll bet the ladies come in pretty often.

Definitely SS. You pay for your table space at any restaurant by purchasing food and/or drink, not just plant yourself there without recouping the business for the space you're using that paying customers now can't.

We had an open book exam which consisted of a case of about 35 pages. I had a lot of time to prepare (2 full days) so instead of writing all my notes in the margins I converted the .pdf into a .doc and made notes on the computer. Not to sound vain, but it really was a work of art. I colourcoded everything, put the pages from the book, explained why I put a term with a paragraph etc. I chose to only share this with people who were willing to share their own notes as well and who put the work in.

At the exam, someone got really mad at me for not sharing, since he could have used it as well. The kicker? He didn't even read the casefile since he didn't "have the time" and furthermore blamed me for him not having any notes. Because as he put it I should have given everyone my notes. Why should they do the work if I already did it?

What made this even more SS to me was that, in the beginning of the year I did a couple of assignments with him, but I quickly learned better of it, since he always had some kind of excuse for not doing his share.

I had one today. BG: Before I arrived at my current job we had a client who wouldn't pay her bills, was incredibly manipulative, a liar, a scam artist and a thief. At some point my boss fired her as a client. She has since pissed off everyone who could provide her service in the state.

Today she called with a semi-emergency begging us to come out. My office manager can't say no to anyone so she agreed I'd go see her contingent on being paid before any work was done. She agreed.

I must have sucker written on my face, because her face got stormy as heck when I asked for her credit card before doing anything. She stomped off to get it and tapped her foot while I waited for the charges to be approved. She asked me to do an assessment before the requested work and I told her it couldn't be salvaged, we should proceed. Cue 5 minutes of her angrily asking how she could fix it and me saying we couldn't. She finally allowed me to do the job and then asked how she would perform the necessary clean-up. Most people have a plan ahead of time, and we have some people she could call, but I'm not interested in ticking off my good contacts. We gave her some ideas and went back to the car.

She then asked me to do more non-emergency work as we were leaving! I replied very nicely that I didn't have time (which was true, just left out the part where I never darken her doorstep again) and my assistant said she grumbled, "That's REAL nice!" in a nasty tone.

When will those dirty mud puddle snowflakes realize that you have to lie in the bed you made and pissing off every person in 4 counties isn't a good way to get what you need?

Recently, they got a call from someone they did not know ("I got your number from Joe!") and this person demanded George come out immediately to service his pool. George told him that the earliest he could come out was on the weekend (in three days). This was "unacceptable!" and George "WILL come out and service his pool TODAY!!"

George told the man that is would not be possible and if he wanted to set up an appointment for Saturday, he could come out then. The man hung up on him.

Someone needs to slap some sense into George so he stops setting himself up for these situations. At the very least he has to stop being willing to work for free for people who talk to him like that.

1. We live in a "condotel" where some people (like us) own our units, others rent from individual owners - some long term and some short term - and there are timeshare units. A group of 5-6 people rented a studio down the hall from our unit. I could tell it was cramped in there because they left their front door open. They might have closed it at some time, but it was open every time I walked by. I could hear their conversations at the other end of the hall. The frosting on the cake happened Sunday morning. I stepped into the hall looking for my newspaper. It's usually in front of my door, but it was missing. My newspaper wasn't in the hall either, but there was a young woman and a child or 2 sitting on the carpet reading. They weren't reading a newspaper, but I suspected they took my newspaper. I called the paper and requested a replacement paper and specifically told the district manager not to blame the delivery man since I was fairly certain these short term neighbors stole my paper. Later in the day, my neighbor across the hall told me she saw my newspaper in front of my door, so it was delivered. I called security and asked them to remind our *guests* that they can socialize in the expansive, beautifully decorated lobby or on the recreation deck, but we don't want to hear them, so close their door and don't take over the hallway. I wanted to go down the hall and demand my newspaper back, but I have learned to be more civilized and I didn't have proof that they stole the paper.

2. Now that we have a dog, I take her for a walk after work. I live in Waikiki. It is illegal to ride bicycles, scooters, skateboards, and roller skates on the sidewalks in Waikiki. Little Honey Girl has almost been run over every day by bicyclist and the skateboard wheels scare her. Yesterday the cyclist yelled at me for not having Honey Girl on a short enough lead. Honey was, at most, 1 foot away from my left heel, which I consider "at heel." The cyclist used profanity. I replied, "It's illegal to ride that bike on this sidewalk." Over his shoulder, the cyclist yelled that he would kill "that little dog if he gets in my way." Why oh why don't the police enforce the law?

Logged

"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."

But I wonder why they don't say, "excuse me, ladies, can I get you something?" and "Oh, you didn't intend to order any of our food, here in our restaurant? It's generally expected that people will. Can I get you something?"

DH and I had a long date before a couples' massage once and killed some time at Panera, a new place to us. Half the place was filled at 3pm, with one person per table, camped out with laptops and/or books. I realized I could refill my own iced coffee, and other drinks were also self-re-fill, so I can see how people took it over for hours at a time. I saw no one with food, only drink.

But I think I would feel guilty and order a pastry or another kind of drink every 60-90 minutes, as a "rental" fee...

When I was in grad school, a local restaurant encouraged students to come in to study overnight. Their only requirement was that you had to buy at least a drink every couple of hours- otherwise they'd be providing free refills for 8-10 hours! The manager said that it was to protect his overnight workers: who was going to try to rob a restaurant full of potential witnesses?

Recently, they got a call from someone they did not know ("I got your number from Joe!") and this person demanded George come out immediately to service his pool. George told him that the earliest he could come out was on the weekend (in three days). This was "unacceptable!" and George "WILL come out and service his pool TODAY!!"

George told the man that is would not be possible and if he wanted to set up an appointment for Saturday, he could come out then. The man hung up on him.

Someone needs to slap some sense into George so he stops setting himself up for these situations. At the very least he has to stop being willing to work for free for people who talk to him like that.

2littlemonkeys said he does get paid. I don't see that George set himself up for anything, this is all on the SS.

2. Now that we have a dog, I take her for a walk after work. I live in Waikiki. It is illegal to ride bicycles, scooters, skateboards, and roller skates on the sidewalks in Waikiki. Little Honey Girl has almost been run over every day by bicyclist and the skateboard wheels scare her. Yesterday the cyclist yelled at me for not having Honey Girl on a short enough lead. Honey was, at most, 1 foot away from my left heel, which I consider "at heel." The cyclist used profanity. I replied, "It's illegal to ride that bike on this sidewalk." Over his shoulder, the cyclist yelled that he would kill "that little dog if he gets in my way." Why oh why don't the police enforce the law?

I have recently learned that it is illegal to ride anything but a bicycle or to walk/run in the bike lanes here in Florida. Signs are posted every few miles stating that the lanes are for bicycles only, not skateboards or walking. Every day, I see people walking in the bike lanes, and I find that very SS, especially when there is more than one person and they walk abreast, into the driving lane next to them.

Sorry, but bike lanes drive me nuts in my city. Over the past year over 50 miles of bike lanes/paths have been put in at great expense. Yet somehow I still get people riding bikes sloooooooooowly in the road right next to the bike lanes. The clearly marked bike lanes. The brand new, really expensive, reduced an already congested area to one lane on either side bike lanes. The bike lanes that are as wide as a regular street lane because that is exactly what was marked off bike lanes.

Yes, you have the right to use the road, I am not denying that. However I now roll my eyes hard enough to sprain something when the riding clubs whine about not getting any respect on the roads. Someone was recently hit in the road on their bike and is getting no sympathy at all because they were deliberately obstructing traffic flow by swerving on and off this insanely wide bike path and into traffic.